Raúl Ibáñez
Philadelphia Phillies — No. 29
Left fielder
Born: June 2, 1972 (1972-06-02) (age 37) New York City, New York
Bats: Left	Throws: Right
MLB debut
August 1, 1996 for the Seattle Mariners
Career statistics (through 2009 season)
Batting average	.285
Home runs	216
Runs batted in	887
Teams
Seattle Mariners (1996–2000) Kansas City Royals (2001–2003) Seattle Mariners (2004–2008) Philadelphia Phillies (2009–present)
Career highlights and awards
1× All-Star selection (2009)

Raúl Javier Ibáñez (pronounced /ɨˈbɑːnjɛz/) (born June 2, 1972, in New York, New York) is a Cuban-American Major League Baseball outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies.

[edit] High school and college

Ibáñez played baseball for Miami Sunset Senior High School. After graduation, he attended Miami-Dade Community College, and was a baseball letterman and an All-Conference selection.

[edit] Professional career

[edit] Seattle Mariners

Ibáñez was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 36th round of the 1992 Major League Baseball Draft. Ibáñez played as a catcher and outfielder at various levels in the Mariners minor league organization. He was selected an All-Star in 1994-1995, and was honored by Baseball America as its Single-A All-Star catcher for 1995. He played his first major league game in 1996 with Seattle, but was soon moved back down to Triple-A, where he eventually played almost 300 games for the Mariners' Triple-A affiliate, the Tacoma Rainiers.^[1]

He was used primarily by the Mariners as a pinch-hitter and reserve catcher-outfielder.

[edit] Kansas City Royals

Ibáñez with the Mariners in 2007

Ibáñez was signed by the Kansas City Royals as a free agent before the 2001 season.

Ibáñez finished his first year for the Royals with a .280 average and 54 RBIs. He teamed with Mike Sweeney and Carlos Beltrán to become just the second trio in major league history to homer in the same three consecutive games. The only other teammates to accomplish the same feat were Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla and Larry Walker with Colorado in 1995. In 2003, he hit 18 homers with 90 RBI and hit .294 for the second straight season (179-for-608); led the team with 33 doubles, and was second with 157 games played, 95 runs and 90 RBI. He also posted career-highs in games, at-bats (608), runs, hits, walks (49) and stolen bases (10).

[edit] Return to Seattle

After three seasons with the Royals, Ibáñez returned to Seattle in 2004 and had a career-high .304 batting average. He also collected a 24-game go-ahead RBI string, matched a club record by reaching base 11 consecutive times, set a career-high and a club record and matched the American League record with six hits, and joined Ichiro Suzuki as only Mariners ever with two five-hit games in one season.

Ibáñez at bat on August 2, 2008 against the Baltimore Orioles

With Edgar Martínez retired, Ibáñez moved to the DH spot before the 2005 season. In 2005, Ibánez hit .280 with 20 home runs and 89 RBIs. The Mariners acquired the switch hitting designated hitter Carl Everett from the Chicago White Sox during the 2005 offseason, forcing Ibáñez to move back to where he played before, namely left field.

Ibáñez enjoyed his most productive season with the Mariners in 2006, when he collected career-highs in home runs (33), RBIs (123), doubles (33) and triples (5), and hit .289 with 103 runs.

In 2007, the Mariners acquired Jose Vidro to assume the role of DH. Ibáñez moved back out to left field and he finished the 2007 season with a .291 batting average. He was on fire in the 2nd half of the 2008 season, with 12 home runs and 55 RBIs with a .321 batting average. He hit a walk-off home run against the Tampa Bay Rays on August 7. He had the best average against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2008, batting .371. Ibáñez also has one of the best career averages by an opposing player in Angel Stadium.

[edit] Philadelphia Phillies

On December 16, 2008, Ibáñez signed a 3-year, $31.5 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies.^[2]

On April 9, 2009, Ibáñez hit his first home run as a member of the Phillies, a deep, two-run shot to right field at Citizens Bank Park.^[3] Ten days later, on April 19, he hit a 2-run, walk-off home run to help the Phillies defeat the San Diego Padres. He hit his eighth career grand slam on April 27, 2009, as part of an eighth-inning comeback to help defeat the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park.^[4]

Ibáñez was the focus of a post in the blog "Midwest Sports Fans"^[5] which raised concerns that he was using performance-enhancing drugs.^[6] A column in the Philadelphia Inquirer resulted in an Ibañez rebuttal stating that, "You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool—anything you can test. I'll give you back every dime I've ever made if the test is positive."^[7]

In voting for the 2009 All Star Game, Ibáñez received the second-most votes for a NL outfielder with 4,053,355, trailing only the Brewers' Ryan Braun (4,138,559).[1]

[edit] Personal

Ibáñez and his wife Teryvette have one son and three daughters.^[8] Ibáñez is an avid reader, and often spends time reading while on the road.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• List of Cuban Americans

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Raúl Ibáñez

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)